Improvement in ladies  skirts



UNITED STATES PATENT' OFFICE.

ALEXANDER DOUGLAS, OE ENGLISH NEIGHBORHOOD, AND s. s. sHEEwooD, OE AOQUAOKANONOK, NEW JERSEY.

IMPRGVEMENT IN LADIES 'SKIRTS.I

Specification forming part of Letters Patent'No. 311,568, dated March 4, 1862.

To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that we, ALEXANDER DOUG- LAS, of English Neighborhood, in the county of Bergen and State of New Jersey, and SAM- UEL S. SHERWOOD, of Acquackanonck, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have invented new and useful Improvements in Ladies Skirts, of which the following is a specification.

The said invention consists in, iirst, the construction and combination of parts, hereinafter described, for securing the vertical tapes to the hoops; second, the device, hereinafter described, for strengthening the waistband and providing holes for the insertion of the hook at the same time by y-means of the combination of a metal plate and eyelets with the cloth, the metal plate or strap connecting the eyelets and apportioning the strain upon alll the points in the cloth at which these eyelets are inserted; third, the pecular construction of the slides, hereinafter described, by which they are rendered easier of attachment and more efficient; fourth, the attachment of the upper continuous hoop to the front tapes by passing it through said tapes, suitably strengthened, as hereinafterdescribed.

Inthe drawings,Figure 1 is afront elevation of the skirt entire. Fig. 2 is a detail view showing the manner of attaching the tapes tothe hoops more clearly than is admissible in the general View. This figure is on an enlarged scale and shows the knots open, not drawn tight. Fig. 3 is ahorizontal seotionof a portion of the waistband, showing the attachment of the metallic strap and its Inode of combination with the eyelets and with the cloth. This is also on a slightly-enlarged scale. Fig. 4: is an end view of one of the slides as it appears when cut from the plate before it is applied to the hoop. Fig. 5 is a side view of the same thing, its fiat side being presented toward the observer. Fig. 6 is a detail view showing the arrangement of parts when single tapes are used for the vertical tapes. i

The first of these improvements, intended to obviate a long-felt difiioulty in the manufacture of ladies skirts, is found in the attachment of the hoops to the tapes. In carrying out this improvement we sometimes use tapes woven with openings for the hoops,

and the hoops are secured in theseopenings, so' as to keep the tapes in proper position on the hoops by Sewing other tapes or braids through them and through the covering of the hoop in the manner represented in the drawings. In other cases we use singletapes, as shown in Fig. 6.

l l represent the hoops and 2 2 the tapes, through the openings in which (if woven with openings) the hooks are inserted.

3 3 are the braids by which the tapes are secured in position. For the tapes 2 2 we prefer a broad and substantial article, as it gives better facilities for fastening them to the hoops.

The view given in Fig. l contains a general outline of the manner of fastening, which is further shown in Fig. 2. Thetapes 2 2, having been attached to the waistband, the upper part of the skirt having been made, and the vhoops l l, having been inserted in the openings, if any, woven for their reception in the tapes 2 2, the braids 3 3 are secured at the top by a simple knot located inside of the skirt or otherwise and passed down in front of the hoop, thence under it outside lof the part of the web thrown up in the weaving, thence upward through the covering of the hoop, from whence it is carried slightly inward and sewed through the front portion or division of the web or tape 2, if said tape is woven with an opening for the hoop. Itis then turned downward again and sewed through the portion of the braid previously 'passed down overthe front of the hoop, from which point it is extended diagonally across the tape 2 and down to the next hoop, where it is again sewed through the covering of the hoop, through the front portion of the tape 2, and through itself again, as already described.

Two braids are used upon each tape, crossing each other between the hoops, as shown. When single tapes are used in the place of the open tapes 2, above described, those tapes are placed in front or outside of the hoops and the braids 3 sewed through them in the same manner that they are sewed through the front portion of the tapes 2 2, as shown in Figs. l and 2. On the upper end of the two front tapes one of the braids 3 is omitted on each tape above the first continuous hoop,

and the other is brought directly down upon the tape, as shown in the drawings, instead of passing diagonally from side to side, as is ythe case in other parts of the skirt. These middle tapes are strengthened with a piece of kid-skin 4 sewed to them, as shown, the leather being drawn over the inner edge and brought back upon the inside of the tape, so as to form the saine cover inside as outside of the tape. An eyelet 5 is put through the outer fold of the kidskin or other leather and receives the first continuous hoop, as shown. It gives the hoop very efiicient and necessary support against the strain to which it is eX- posed in putting on and taking off the skirt.

The waistband 8 is strengthen ed to support it against the destructive effect of the hook by a piece of thin metal 6, attached by eyelets 7` 7 to said waistband, the said eyelets at the same time furnishing the necessary holes for the introduction of the hook. It is obvious that the strip of metal combined in this manner with the hook will divide the strain between the points of its attachment nearly equally, as, while it is suiciently lexible to bend to lit the contour of the person, it is yet sufficiently rigid' to support a considerable thrust, and more than strong enough to resist any tensile strain that is likely to come upon it.

The clasps or slides which secure the ends of the hoops and alloT them to slide uponV each other to expand and contract the skirt are made in some respects similar to the slide secured in our patent of December 2l, 1858, though in some respects an improvement on that construction. In the present case, instead of making the bars of this slide which come over the inside of the hoop to which `it is fastened or that side next the other part of the hoop continuous and straight, we make them open or divided and pointed, as shown in the drawings, Figs. 4 and 5. This allows the much more convenient introduction. of the hoop for the purposek of fastening on the slides, as by turning it slightly edgewise it can be inserted by a lateral movement, instead otl requiring to be thrust in endwise, as before. Their being made pointed, as shown, also causes them to penetrate and hold upon the web in a superior manner. The points 9 9 ofthe slides 10 10 are first punched or struck up in the shape represented in the drawings, Figs. 4 and 5, andthe hoops to which they are to be attached being inserted, the points are pressed down upon the hoop and the side portions of the plate brought up to form the fastening or loop through the other hoop-slides, substantially in the manner described in the patent above alluded to, and is further folded down upon the hoop in the same manner.

We claim- 'l. The combination, in the manner above described, of the hoops 1 l, tapes 2 2, and braids 3 3.

' 2. The combination, with the waistband S and with each other, of the metal plate or strap 6 and the eyelets 7 7, substantially as set forth. y

`3. The construction of the slides for eX- panding the skirt, with continuous 'bars upon the outer'side of the hoop or side farthest from the sliding portion, and with.pointed teeth upon the inner side instead of continuous bars, in the manner and for the purpose described, the pointed teeth alternating with the bars, as shown.

4. The combination, with the upper continuous hoops, of the stay4 and eyelet 5, substantially as described.

ALEX. DOUGLAS. S. S. SHERWOOD. Witnesses:

L. A. ROBERT, CHAs. G. FOWLER. 

